Clear Syncs and Works with Mac

If you are looking for a simple and elegant GTD (to do list) program for your iOS device, Clear may be just for you.

The simple interface is easy to use and intuitive.

Today, the Mac version of the Clear is being released and is on sale for 50% off. Now, using iCloud, you can sync between your iOS device and the Mac version. Take and modify your lists on the go and review them on your computer.

Keynote for iPad – Best Practices

If you have been using or want to use your iPad to do Keynote presentations, you may want to review the recent Apple knowledge base article Keynote for iPad: Best practices for creating a presentation on a Mac for use on an iPad. Your presentations will look best if you follow these tips.

The article reprinted in its entirety for you below:

• When you create a new presentation on your Mac, use one of the following themes:
  • Black
  • Blackboard
  • Craft
  • Gradient
  • Harmony
  • Modern Portfolio
  • Moroccan
  • Parchment
  • Showroom
  • White

• From the bottom-right corner of the Theme Chooser screen, set the Slide Size to “1024 x 768.”

• Use fonts common to both the Mac and iPad platforms. Fonts that are not available on the iPad are replaced with the Helvetica font.

• Choose from these Master Slides:
  • Blank
  • Title
  • Title & Subtitle
  • Title & Bullets
  • Title, Bullets & Photo
  • Bullets
  • Photo
  • Photo – Horizontal

• To ensure your images look their best and are optimized for use in Keynote for iPad, scale them to their intended size before adding them to your slide and use the PNG format whenever possible. You can convert your image easily using the Preview application on your Mac:
  1. Open Preview.
  2. Open the image you want to convert to PNG.
  3. Use Adjust Size from the Tools menu to scale images to their intended size.
  4. From the File menu select Save As and then select the PNG option.
• If you need to use an image in a PDF format, use the Preview application to reduce the file size by Compressing your PDF files.
• Do not override the theme backgrounds by making changes in the Slide Inspector’s Image Fill drop-down menu.

• Keynote for Mac can reduce the size of images and videos to match their use on a slide and keep the presentation size to a minimum.  It’s always a good idea to back up your document before using the Reduce File Size feature.
  1. To reduce the file size of an individual image that you’ve masked or resized to a smaller size, select the image and choose Format > Image > Reduce Image File Size.
  2. To reduce the sizes of all masked and resized (shrunk) images, and shortened videos, choose File > Reduce File Size.

Lexis Advance Legal App Updated

Lexis is, in part, a legal research service. The Lexis Advance HD app is an intuitive mobile interface specifically for the iPad. You can access LexisNexis Advance services whether on the go, in your office or in court. Although the app has existed for some time (with some issues), this update makes a big difference in the quality of the services delivered.

New features in this version include:

Ability to view annotations; enhanced navigation for multi-part documents; search across 21 additional content types; numerous new filters for narrowing results; search terms bolded in results list; go directly to document if searching single citation; select from Recent & Favorite filters; visual indication that document has been saved to a folder.

Although the app is free, you need to have a current Lexis Advance subscription and valid ID/password to use this app.

The features of the app include:

- Instant Search – with the help of suggested search terms run a search without having to select a specific source, delivering relevant results for both text and citation. Filter answer sets according to jurisdiction, date, legal topic, key word or court.

- Evaluate your Case with Shepard’s® – Validate whether cases and statutes are still good law and save your findings in your folders for easy access wherever you are.

- Stay Organized with Work Folders – You can create work folders on your iPad which synchronize with your web-based Lexis® Advance application. You can then save documents and searches in your work folder, access them again at any time and any place, and even highlight/annotate key passages.

The ability to synchronize work folders between your iPad and web-based Lexis service is very helpful.

If you are interested in learning more about the services offered, check out this page.

Index Card App – Stacks above others

If you have an affinity for working with index cards, you will love the updated Index Card app for the iPad.

It presents the best of what you use index cards for – capturing or organizing information and ideas with the modern tools to search, reorganize and share that information.

Quite simply, you create index cards by starting a new project. Then, tap on the + to start your first index card. Type in the title and then synopsis. Tap back to have access to the back of the card for a place to put even more typed information.

You can choose different card colors by tapping on the color swatch on the left and selecting the color of your new card.

The settings are minimal and sufficient. You can choose different backgrounds for your cards to sit on, change the fonts and link your cards to your Dropbox account.

There are 3 different views for your cards: card view, outline view and vertical view. You can choose the view at the top left. In any view, you can tap hold and drag the card or information to a new place to create a new order.

Sharing the cards is easy as well. You can send them via email in “Indexcard”, TXT or RTF format.

The ability to stack or clip together index cards into a logical group is a great bonus. Although it is not completely obvious how to accomplish that task initially, once you understand it, the value of a stack is invaluable. To stack cards, tap on edit at the top right and then tap the cards you want to stack. A blue check mark will appear at the bottom right of each selected card you want to stack. Tap stack, you will be given a chance to name the stack and the cards will be stacked.

To unstack, tap on the stack and tap edit. Select the cards to unstack and the “unstack” button becomes available to tap and remove that card from the stack. One or more cards can also be moved to another project by tapping on the move button.

You can also choose the vertical view, and then drag and drop cards within a column to create a stack. Once you drag a card under another card, you will be able to name your stack.

Once you get the app, review the included “Tutorial Project.” This set of cards walks you through using the app. Make sure you look at the cards in the different views and rotations so you get a sense of how to use the app.

Pros

Simple, intuitive, easy to use tool. Easy to understand. Great organizational tool.

Cons

It is not apparent how to easily uncreate a stack once it is created should you decide you no longer want the stack.

Updated feature requests:

My personal feelings are not meant to disparage the app. I would love to use the app more and think that the following features would be a natural fit for the app: Draw on back: With so much room on the back of a note card, it would be nice to be able to draw out a thought or image. Scale: It would be nice to scale the size of the cork board up and down to have a view of more cards at a time for easy movement of the cards. Test Mode: For students, it would be nice to add a feature to allow “test” mode to allow you to practice taking a test once you create notecards for reviewing a school project.

Conclusion.

If you are looking for a great index card app, do not hesitate to download and begin using Index Card. For $4.99 it is cheaper than the price of 2 spiral bound stacks of index cards at Staples.

Clear Task Manager Released

Clear has now been released. The app is a simple to do list that is elegant and intuitive, once you understand it. It takes a couple of minutes to wrap your head around how lists and tasks are organized, deleted and created. However, once you get it, it is pretty fast.

The developer has already announced future features that may be included. Those include:

• Syncing tasks/lists between devices
• iPad and Mac versions, as well as Clear for other platforms such as Android and Windows Phone 7.
• Archiving completed tasks and/or lists
• Sublists/nested lists
• Reminders/alerts
• Sharing lists with others
• Moving task between lists

The app was previously mentioned here and you can watch the video.

For the introductory price, it is worth checking out and fun to try.

Dragon Go!

Nuance, the maker of various voice to transcription software has come out with its newest app, Dragon Go! It is similar to Siri but has a better interface.

Using your voice, you can say what you are looking for and Dragon Go! will deliver results. Different web sites are delivered in a helpful scrollable/slideable  format.

You can search for weather, movies, restaurants, directions, information and more. The results include data from Twitter, CNN, WordPress, Google, Yelp, and more.

The app will require internet access. This means, if you have your cellular service or wifi turned off, the app can’t call home to get you the results.

The app will work on an iPad and is free, but it is not yet a universal app.

AppShopper Updated to 1.4

If you are constantly looking to buy an app but think the price is not quite right, you need to check out AppShopper.

The company describes the app as follows:

AppShopper keeps you up to date on the newest App Store apps, sales and freebies. Organize apps in your own customized Wish List and automatically get notified when there is a sale or update.

New Features:

- Top 200: See all the current top apps and their movement.

- Ratings & Reviews: Browse ratings and reviews from 3rd party sites such as TouchArcade.com

- Sharing: Share an app’s info via Twitter, Facebook, email, and more

Features include:

- Popular Apps: Overwhelmed by the App Store? Our list of popular app changes lets you browse a list of only the apps that other AppShopper users think are worth looking at.

- What’s New: Track all the latest changes to the App Store: price drops, updates, and new apps.

- Wish List: Add any app to your own personal Wish List and get notified of price changes or updates by email. With Push Notifications, you can get the latest updates sent directly to your device.

- My Apps: Keep track of the apps you already own. With Push Notifications, you can get the latest updates sent directly to your device.

- Syncs with AppShopper.com: Wish List and My Apps automatically sync with AppShopper.com so you can manage your lists in a web browser.

If you are interested in an app, you can add it to a watch list. When it goes on sale, you can see it. If you own an app and select you own it, if there is an update, it you will see it. Overall, I find myself checking this app throughout the day. When you want a great deal on an app, this app can help you save money.

Bamboo Paper App from Wacom

Wacom, the maker of various tablet devices, has released its paperless notebook and drawing app Bamboo Paper for the iPad. The app is free until the end of June.

The description states the app has “the ability to create virtual notebooks for your iPad, letting you share your ideas visually with handwritten notes, sketches or doodles. Paired with the Bamboo Stylus, it turns your iPad into the ultimate paperless communications tool.” Although it appears you can continue to create new pages, I have not figured out how to create more than one notebook. UPDATE: An email from support states they are “currently working on an update of Bamboo paper. The new version will, besides other nice features, also include multiple notebooks.” So, right now, multiple notebooks are not available. You can learn more about the app and see a short video here at a Wacom site.

UPDATE 2 Wacom has updated the app to v 1.3. Now, you can add put to 20 notebooks…but for a price. You must pay for an in app purchase to get the Notebook Pack. The in app purchase price is currently $1.99 US.

Opening the Program

When you first start up, you can name the notebook, select its cover color and choose the type of pages (lined, blank, grid) that will be in the notebook. Also, you can export the entire book by email or print it from here.

Tools

Once you tap on the notebook and open it, you are presented with a page.

Pen Selection – You can select 3 sizes of pens and 6 colors. A neat feature is the ability to tap and hold anywhere on the page and be presented with a choice of pens and colors at that point instead of having to go to the top of the toolbar.

Export- You can send a page via email, save it to the library or print it.

Erase – Undo and redo are available along with an eraser and clear page feature.

Bookmark – There is a bookmark tool available to mark a particular page.

Pinch to Zoom – You can also use a two finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out for more detailed work.

Presentation

If you have an iPad2, you can use a projector and Apple’s connector to present your notes to a group. Although the developer claims you can “connect your iPad to a projector to show off your sketches…” it is not clear if this feature is available on the 1st generation iPad.

Overall

The app has a simple interface and is easy to use. The flow of ink is feels “natural” and smooth and is similar to a felt tip pen.  If you use your finger instead of a stylus, it appears wrist protection of some sort is built in so that when parts of your hand other than your finger tip rest on or touch the screen, it is not registered. Although there is no landscape mode, for free, you can’t go wrong. More than that, this app does have a feel of paper and pen. Download it today and experience what digital paper and pen feels like.

Find my iPhone Updated for iPad v. 1.2

Finally, you can see and use find my iPhone on your iPad as a universal app. The full screen of your iPad is now used instead of replicating a tiny iPhone screen.

Apple describes the app as follows:

Find My iPhone is free for anyone with an iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch (iOS 4.2 or later required).* Just sign in with your Apple ID on your qualifying device and turn on Find My iPhone to allow you to locate it. Then use the same Apple ID to turn on Find My iPhone on your other iOS 4.2 (or later) devices including iPhone 3G, 3GS, or iPod touch (2nd generation or later). Find My iPhone is also included with a MobileMe subscription.

If you lose your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch while on the go, simply install the Find My iPhone app on another iOS device, launch it, and sign in with your Apple ID (Find My iPhone must already be configured on the missing device).

You’ll see your device’s location on a map and you can choose to have it display a message or play a sound, remotely lock the device, or wipe it to permanently delete all of your data if you think that it won’t be returned. For added security, the app will automatically sign you out after 15 minutes, or you can manually sign out at any time.

This is a very useful app. You can set the feature up on your various iOS devices. It is not only handy to find where you left a device, but locating where your kids have hidden your iPad.

Please note, Apple does not make this clear…You must install the app and enter the information on the device BEFORE you try to use it to locate your device.

Get this app and install it on your iOS devices to keep up with them.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary App

Ever want to look up a word on a dictionary on your iPad? Merriam-Webster today came out with an iPad version of their popular iPhone app. You can learn more here.

The app also offers synonyms, antonyms, example sentences, Word of the Day, and more. It’s a great tool for reference, education, and vocabulary building. The portrait view is shown below.
The enhanced iPad version offers voice search to let you look up a word without having to spell it. You can press on the speaker icon and have the app speak the word.

Although the app is supported by ads, this handy resource is well worth the download. Because it is 21 MB, you will probably need wi-fi access to download it.